The Birds, oh, the Birds!

My favorite cozy horror movie is The Birds. Not too much gore and blood, just enough. It’s even more of a terror after learning that Alfred Hitchcock demanded that they re-shoot the scene where Tippi Hedren gets attacked by the birds, over and over again, to exact revenge on her because she didn’t play into his big ego. Still, this is an excellent movie and I recommend you watch this during the last cold, dark days of winter.

Real birds were thrown at Tippi Hedren’s face to get the shot.

Even after watching The Birds, I still like my fine-feathered friends and this week I was bombarded with them, in a good way. It started with the discovery of live nest cams on YouTube. There is a red-tailed hawk nest here in one of our parks and they’re just prepping the nest. No eggs yet, but soon. Link to Red-Tailed Hawk Live Cam.

Have you ever watched a nest cam for hours? I did, just to see this bird fly in and drop off some pine needles and then fly off again.

If you want some instant gratification go to the bald eagle live cam. This nest is in Southern California and the chicks have hatched. It’s a daily drama. I don’t know if I can take it. When one chick didn’t eat its dinner eagerly enough, I started thinking, something had to be done. Compelling and amazing! Link to Bald Eagle Live Cam

Drama on day one: one of the parents stepped on a newly hatched chick! He or she is OK. The people in charge of the live cam have made a special collection of highlights and you can watch the most dramatic parts.This is a screen shot of both parents returning with food. One fish and a rodent of some sort.

And then on to more relaxing entertainment. My book collection has hatched three birds this week. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, published by the defunct Franklin Press from the 1980s. Pretty cool cover with silver foil stamping and images from the movie. If you’ve ever watched the movie and couldn’t follow the story, read the book. It helps.

A classic by Carlos Castaneda brought back some good memories of my days with crystals and feathers.And, finally, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven is my last biblio hatchling. This edition is part of the Penguin Horror collection, edited by Guillermo Del Toro, that came out a few years ago. Always a good author to read in winter.